Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 338

The already tense atmosphere grew even colder with my bombshell declaration that if they didn’t cooperate, I would side with the Church of the Five Great Gods and start hunting down the Vampire Lords out of spite.

Lucinil crossed her arms and glared at me.

“Do you think you can walk out of here alive after saying such a thing? Don’t you value your life? Even if you’re an Archdemon, you’re still a rookie. Do you think we can’t just close our eyes and snap your neck, Tiamata or not?”

“Eleris will figure something out. She’s always managed to so far.”

“Y-Your Highness!”

The one most flustered by my words was Eleris herself.

She hadn’t expected me to take this approach at all.

“Are you just trying to take the easy way out in life...?”

“I have to at least try, don’t I? Anyway, you’re free to try and kill me, but you should be prepared for what will happen if I manage to escape.”

Though my words were hard, I had no real intention of fighting, so I unsummoned Tiamata again.

I knew provoking them by hurting their pride wasn’t the best approach. Ultimately, though, I had no other cards to play beyond threatening them.

I had nothing to offer, and they had no reason to cooperate.

If throwing away all my pride, falling to the floor and begging them to help me would secure their help, I would have done it.

But even that wouldn’t secure their cooperation, so this was the best I could do.

“Honestly, the Church of the Five Great Gods is larger and more powerful, so siding with them would be more beneficial. But I came to the Council first because, in a way, you’re my closer neighbors. It seemed more polite to come here first. And if I become the face of the Church of the Five Great Gods as the Champion of Ouen, I won’t be able to form any relationship with you.”

Saying all of this made me feel like a piece of trash.

Galarsh didn’t hide his displeasure, and neither did Lruien.

My audacious statements seemed to have turned both of them against me. Lucinil was as hostile as ever.

“We will cooperate,” Antirianus said out of nowhere.

Everyone was taken aback.

“... Sorry? Excuse me? What did you say?”

Oddly enough, I was the most surprised of all.

‘Why?’

Antirianus looked at me with a mysterious smile. “Why are you so surprised? You asked for our cooperation, and I will cooperate, great being.”

Lucinil glared at the old gentleman with a nervous look. “Antirianus, what’s your dirty scheme this time?”

“Scheme? It’s just interesting, isn’t it? One of the holy relics of the Five Great Gods, Tiamata, is in the hands of an Archdemon.”

The old gentleman smiled at me. “Don’t you feel the malice of the gods?”

The first demon in history to become the owner of Tiamata, and an Archdemon at that...

“Whether the Demon King loses everything in vain or achieves all his dreams, it will be interesting either way. How could I not follow such a path?”

There was a deep malice in Antirianus’s eyes. The kind of malice that found amusement in others’ misfortune, happiness, sorrow, and joy.

“I wish to alleviate the boredom of eternal life by watching the fates of others.”

“Are you out of your mind, Antirianus?”

Galarsh’s words were met with a smile from Antirianus.

I began to understand why Eleris had warned me about Antirianus. He was the only Vampire Lord who had expressed a willingness to cooperate, yet he made my skin crawl.

While it was fortunate to have some support, I hadn’t expected it to unfold in such a bizarre context.

“Wouldn’t it be more problematic if someone who has lived for so long were still sane?”

Antirianus's point that living for such a long time would inevitably lead to rather deranged decision-making was surprisingly persuasive.

“Therefore, I, Antirianus, and the family of Saturday will cooperate with the Demon King. Won’t more interesting things happen than during the Great War? Since I’ve said so, then consider an attack against the Demon King as an attack against me.”

“I really don’t understand what he’s thinking. Don’t you agree, Lruien?”

“... Is this the first time?”

It seemed Antirianus’s eccentric behavior wasn’t new. After expressing his desire to cooperate, Antirianus tapped the table with his index finger and looked at me.

“In any case, as immortals, we have plenty of time. We don’t have to decide everything right here and now. So, how about taking a few days to talk things over slowly?”

It seemed he wanted everyone to take a break, clear our heads, and have some separate conversations.

That was good for me.

There was nothing more frightening than altruism, and this form of altruism felt like a noose tightening around my neck.

“Hey, you little punk Archdemon. Let’s have a chat.” Lucinil said, pointing at me. She seemed to find this break convenient.

Eleris nodded at me, indicating it was okay.

It felt like the kindest person here had come to dislike me the most.

***

Thanks to Antirianus’s mediation, the Council meeting was temporarily halted. Regardless of his intentions, his decision to cooperate had clearly shifted the atmosphere somewhat.

Lucinil, who had left the meeting room, gestured for me to follow her and walked ahead in silence.

A homunculus vampire with silver hair and red eyes, the head of Wednesday...

Eleris had said that Lucinil was probably the least harmful among them, but from what I could see, she seemed the most upset.

“Where did you learn such bad manners? Did the Demon King teach you that?” she said.

It was a low blow, but since I had no particular feelings about the previous Demon King, it didn’t anger me.

“It’s in my nature. What can I do?” I replied.

At this point, it wasn’t just a persona; I had genuinely grown to be like that. Lucinil stopped in front of a window, beyond which a snowstorm was raging, and turned to look at me.

“You won’t gain anything by doing this,” she said quietly. “Antirianus and I might not care, but Lruien and Galarsh are genuinely angry.”

“I figured as much. But what can I do? This is all I can do.”

“You might end up dead before you can even think about rebuilding the Demon Realm.”

The idea of being killed for threatening the heads of the Vampire Lord families was exceedingly unpleasant. But the fact that Lucinil was warning me rather than expressing anger confirmed Eleris’s assessment that she was relatively harmless.

“I was interested in you as Baalier’s successor, but now I’ll remember you as an arrogant, rude, and overly confident fool with nothing to back it up.”

Lucinil seemed to have formed a very negative impression of me due to my flawed personality. Despite that, though...

“But the reason I’ve decided to cooperate with you, despite my bad first impression, is because I owe Eleris a personal debt.”

I didn’t bother asking what this debt to Eleris was since she probably wouldn’t tell me anyway.

Lucinil bit her lip in frustration and glared at me. “Damn it, Eleris must have known I’d do this.”

I didn’t know what debt she owed, but it seemed Eleris had brought me to the Vampire Council knowing that Lucinil would reluctantly agree to my request for cooperation because of it. This was probably also why she said Lucinil was harmless.

The heads of Wednesday and Saturday... Both of them had their reasons for agreeing to cooperate with me. Lucinil crossed her arms and tilted her head.

“Anyway, you’ve now secured the cooperation of three out of the five families. Isn’t that enough? Why not just leave instead of stirring things up further?”

She seemed to think that continuing to attend the Council meetings would only provoke Lruien and Galarsh without any additional benefit.

“If I’m going to do this, I might as well try to bring everyone on board, don’t you think?”

“I figured you’d say that. You’re a shameless one.” Lucinil clicked her tongue and sighed. “Follow me.”

Lucinil seemed to think this wasn’t the right place to talk and dragged me after her again.

Lucinil left the palace building and trudged through the deep snow outside.

Whoooosh....

Naturally, it was difficult to walk through the snow with her small frame, and she eventually couldn’t move properly.

“Damn it.”

Bang!

Lucinil extended her hand, and a shockwave sent the accumulated snow in front of her flying away in all directions.

“This council chamber was built in the wrong place. Why build a palace in a place where it snows all year round? I don’t get it.”

“... I’m guessing you weren’t around when this palace was built, were you?”

“This place was built a long time ago, back when Sunday and Monday were still around. No one knows exactly when,” she grumbled. “Of course, it’s been renovated a lot since then. It was really crude in the beginning.”

Lucinil led the way through the snowstorm, and I followed.

“I’m not sure if this is the right way to put it, but I’d like to know the order of seniority among you all. Can you tell me?”

“Seniority? Oh, you’re asking about age?”

“Yes, roughly.”

Lucinil spread her fingers as if it wasn’t a secret.

“As you can probably guess, Lruien is the oldest. Then Galarsh, then Eleris, then me, and lastly, Antirianus.”

Lucinil and I left the main palace and arrived at what could be called an annex building.

“And this place is always crawling with spirits. Why is the land here so cursed?”

Soft whimpering came from all directions.

Lucinil clapped her hands, and the ghostly wails that were assailing us from all directions vanished as if the spirits had been scattered into thin air.

It was strange to hear a vampire complain about bad land.

“Like summer flies, no matter how many times you chase them away, they keep coming back.”

I didn’t know what about it exactly, but spirits really seemed to like this Vampire Council headquarters. Lucinil sat on an old sofa in the reception room of the annex, and I sat across from her.

“Let’s set Antirianus and whatever scheme he has aside for now. You want to bring Lruien and Galarsh on board as well, right?”

“If possible.”

“Little Archdemon, we’ve all lived for an unimaginably long time, even if there’s some variation. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“I guess?”

“How do you think we all ended up becoming vampires?”

It was impossible to be born a vampire.

All of them had been something else before becoming a vampire. Lruien was likely an elf, Galarsh an orc, and Lucinil a homunculus.

“Well? I guess it’s different for everyone?”

“It’s not different for everyone.”

Resting her chin on the armrest of the sofa, Lucinil looked at me with a sideways glance.

“It’s because we didn’t want to die.”

The reason the five great Vampire Lords had become vampires was simply because they didn’t want to die.

I hadn’t expected some grand reason, but it felt oddly strange that it all boiled down to that.

“Antirianus said he debated on whether to become a lich or a vampire and chose to become a vampire. He thought that living on as a skeleton would be more inconvenient than not being able to see the sun. However, he ended up becoming a Vampire Lord, so now he can see the sun if he wants to, even if it’s painful. He’s pretty lucky. Anyway, he became a vampire because he didn’t want to die.”

‘Well, that’s creepy in its own way.’

“I was a homunculus. A homunculus is an unstable magical lifeform. I was quite exceptionally stable, but I still didn’t know my exact lifespan, and the thought of facing death someday terrified me. So I tried every method to avoid dying, and the last option I had was to become a vampire. It’s the same reason—I didn’t want to die.”

Lucinil seemed about to say something else, but then changed her mind.

“Anyway, while the specific reasons may vary, the fact remains that we all became vampires because we didn’t want to die.”

Lucinil did not explain the circumstances surrounding the transformations of Lruien, Galarsh, or Eleris, but it was clear that becoming a vampire was a refuge for those who feared death.

“So, in a way, your threats are the most effective against us because what we fear most is death.”

For immortals who had likely acquired almost everything they desired over their long lives, the only meaningful threat to them was the end of life itself. They feared death.

“Of course, that’s only part of it. We’ve lived for an incredibly long time, and it’s not like the heads of the families have always been the same individuals. How do you think that happened?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t know...” I replied.

“Vampires of our caliber won’t be hunted down or killed.”

I read something in Lucinil’s eyes.

“Suicide?”

“Yep.”

Ennui...

“This is the main reason why the heads of the five families need to be replaced from time to time. There are other cases, but you don’t need to know about those.”

Powerful vampires living in seclusion far from the world were not in danger of being hunted down and killed. Not only because they were strong, but also because they didn't reveal their existences to the world.

The heads of the families could only be replaced by voluntarily giving up their lives.

“So, does that mean they don’t fear death after all?”

If all of them became vampires to avoid death, but eventually grew tired of life, then did that mean that threatening their lives wouldn’t achieve anything?

“No, it’s the opposite.”

Lucinil smiled subtly. “They’ve lived so long, grown so tired of living, and yet...”

There was a hint of sadness in the vampire’s eyes. “They still have a reason to live.”

In that case, each of the current heads each had to have at least one reason to continue living.

The fact that they hadn’t given up on life yet was already proof of that.

Lucinil was giving me information.